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Development pledges ‘not vote-buying’
http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=17622
Kimberley Lau KUALA LUMPUR (April 16, 2007): Development promises by ministers to voters during an election cannot be construed as vote-buying. Neither can allocations, given out in kind by ministers during elections, be deemed as bribing voters, Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said today.
“Ministers and functionaries, people connected to the government, they’re doing their job,” he told reporters at the launch of a national voter registration campaign.
Abdul Rashid stressed, however, that election candidates and political parties cannot make promises to voters during an election.
In the recently-concluded Machap by-election in Malacca, voters benefitted from newly-paved roads, hundreds of new street lamps, and a RM1.2 million recreational area near the Durian Tunggal dam.
Other development goodies were also announced by the Barisan Nasional leadership, including 102 grants for housing lots for second-generation settler families at Felda Tun Ghafar Machap, and a RM3.7 million allocation to Felda Machap to upgrade water pipes, construct a multi-purpose hall and repair a mosque.
Various ministries also promised different kinds of allocations to improve the lives of voters, prompting DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng to remark that the Machap voters were the “real victors” in the by-election.
Lim told theSun the party would be making a formal complaint to the EC today as such promises were an offence under the Election Offences Act 1954 as stipulated under Sections 8 to 10, which cover the issues of treating, exerting undue influence and bribery.
Abdul Rashid said vote-buying was not the EC’s problem.
“Vote-buying is for the Anti-Corruption Agency (to investigate). We are not given the power to handle corrupt practices,” he said, adding that the EC could only advise people to take part in the elections in “a clean way”.
“Of course, if evidence is there, the party can bring the case to court and they (the courts) will decide,” he said.
However, he noted that in previous court cases which contested these issues, the judges had ruled that there was no need to stop ministers from publicising their projects.
Earlier, Abdul Rashid said the national voter registration exercise hoped to register at least 50% of the current 4.9 million unregistered voters.
So far, only 10.2 million Malaysians aged 21 years and above, out 15.1 million, have registered to vote.
